By Roland Piquepaille
The Barbary Apes who live on Gibraltar's Rock are the only semi-wild monkeys in Europe. And for decades, nobody knew where they came from. Now, after studying mitochondrial DNA from 280 individual samples, an international group of scientists from Germany, Switzerland and the U.S. has solved the mystery of the origin of Gibraltar's macaques. Their study reveals that they descended from founders picked in both Morocco and Algeria. Of course, another mystery needs to be solved. You might not know that a local story says that if the monkeys disappear from Gibraltar, so will the British. So when the population of these Barbary Apes was almost reduced to zero sixty years ago, did British Prime Minister Winston Churchill order to capture some of them in nearby Africa? Read more...Before going further, here is a great photograph of one of these Gibraltar's Barbary Apes.
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"This one has found a construction stand to sit on, and he doesn't seem to suffer from vertigo." (Credit: Gnapp's photoblog) You'll find a high-quality version of this picture on this post on Gnapp's photoblog. |
Now, let's return to this news release from the Field Museum in Chicago.
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA from 280 individual samples reveals that the macaques on Gibraltar descended from founders taken from forest fragments in both Morocco and Algeria. The embargoed research will be published in the Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.pnas.org/papbyrecent.shtml) .
[Note: this research should have been published online on April 25, 2005 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, but is not yet available.]
Now, here are some more scientific details.
In mammals, mitochondrial DNA is inherited exclusively from the female, so it can be analyzed to determine matrilineal origins. This is especially relevant with mammals, such as macaques, that practice female philopatry, a social system in which females remain in their birth groups while males migrate between groups.
The research first identified 24 different haplotypes in the Algerian and Moroccan colonies of macaques. Each mitochondrial haplotype is identified by means of a specific DNA sequence.
Since the Algerian and Moroccan haplotypes are clearly distinct, evidence of any given haplotype in the mitochondrial DNA of Gibraltar macaques would indicate that they descended from the geographical population with that haplotype. [...] In fact, both Algerian and Moroccan haplotypes were found among the Gibraltar macaques, indicating that the Gibraltar colony was founded by female macaques from both regions.
The study is still speculating about when these apes were introduced in Gibraltar.
Some scientists believe the Barbary macaques were first brought to Gibraltar by the Moors, who occupied Spain between 711 and 1492. On the other hand, it's possible that the original Gibraltar macaques were a remnant of populations that had spread throughout Southern Europe during the Pliocene, up to 5.5 million years ago.
So was it 5 million years ago or 60 years ago? A future study will tell.
In the mean time, you might want to read two additional pages from Wikipedia about Gibraltar and the Barbary Ape.
Sources: The Field Museum news release, April 25, 2005; and various websites
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